Syria

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 04 August 2017

Summary: Non-signatory Syria has shown minimal interest in the convention and ignored calls to join it, which have multiplied since Syrian government forces began to use cluster munitions against their own population in mid-2012. Syria abstained from voting on a key UN resolution on the convention in December 2016. It participated in a meeting of the convention once, in 2011.

Syria is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions. It has denied possessing or using cluster munitions, but over 600 cluster munition attacks have been recorded in 12 of Syria’s 14 governorates in the five-year period to July 2017. At least 13 types of air-dropped and ground-launched cluster munitions have been used in Syria as well as an unknown type of rocket-fired submunition. There were least 238 separate attacks using cluster munitions in Syria between August 2016 and July 2017, a significant increase from the number of cluster munition attacks recorded before Russia began its joint military operation with Syrian government forces in September 2015. Since 2014, states have adopted 10 Human Rights Council resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, including four since June 2016.

Policy

The Syrian Arab Republic has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

The Syrian government has commented publicly once on the question of whether it will accede to the convention. In September 2011, its representative informed a meeting of the Convention on Cluster Munitions that Syria views cluster munitions as “criminalized by humanity” and said, “We appreciate the international effort to ban these weapons, but cannot sign due to Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights.”[1]

Syria abstained from the vote on a key UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution in December 2016 that calls on states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[2] It abstained from the vote on the first UNGA resolution on the convention in December 2015.[3]

Syria did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Syria participated as an observer in the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon, in September 2011. This marks its first and only attendance at a meeting of the convention.

Syria is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production and transfer

Syria is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions.

Stockpiling

Based on evidence of cluster munition use since 2012, Syria has imported or otherwise received at least 13 types of cluster munitions, as listed in the following table. All cluster munitions used in Syria since 2012 were manufactured by the Soviet Union/Russia with two exceptions.[4] When and how the Syrian government obtained these cluster munitions, and in what quantities remains unknown.[5]

Types of cluster munitions used in Syria since 2012

Type

Cluster munition name

Number of submunitions

Country produced

Bomb

RBK-250 PTAB-2.5M

42

USSR

RBK 250-275 AO-1SCh

150

USSR

RBK-500 AO-2.5RT/RTM

108

Russia/USSR

RBK-500 PTAB-1M

268

USSR

RBK-500 ShOAB-0.5

565

USSR

RBK-500 SPBE

15

Russia

Rocket

Uragan (9M27K-series)

30

Russia

Smerch (9M55K)

72

Russia

SAKR

56 or 72

Egypt

Missiles

9M79 Tochka with 9N123K warhead

50

Russia/USSR

Projectile

3-O-8

14

Russia/USSR

Dispenser

BKF AO-2.5RT

96

USSR

BKF PTAB-2.5KO

12

USSR

Use

Evidence recorded by local activists, journalists, first responders, medical personnel, and others points to least 238 separate attacks using cluster munitions in Syria between August 2016 and July 2017.[6] Previously, Cluster Munition Monitor 2016 reported at least 360 cluster munition attacks between July 2012 and July 2016 in multiple locations across all except two of the country’s 14 governorates.[7] From July 2016 to July 2017, there has been a more than 200% increase in the use of cluster munition in Syria, which corresponds with an apparent increase that began when Russia began its joint operation with Syrian government forces on 30 September 2015.[8]

There is strong evidence that Russia stockpiles cluster munitions at its airbase at Hmeymim, southeast of Latakia City, and that it is using cluster munitions in Syria. At a minimum, Russia is directly participating together with Syrian government forces in attacks using cluster munitions on opposition-held areas of governorates such as Aleppo, Homs, and Idlib, and on armed opposition groups.

Russian and Syrian government forces use many of the same aircraft and weapons and frequently carry out offensives together. However, Russia is the only force in Syria to operate Sukhoi SU-25 and SU-34 fighter-ground attack jets used to deliver RBK-series cluster bombs. Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, and others have compiled credible evidence, including videos and photographs, documenting SU-25 and SU-34 near or involved in attacks near sites when cluster munitions were used.[9] The Russian Ministry of Defense appeared to acknowledge responsibility for a June 2016 attack on coalition-backed armed opposition forces near the Syrian al-Tanf border crossing with Iraq. The United Kingdom (UK) and United States (US) said the attack used RBK-500 AO-2.5RT/RTM cluster munitions.[10]

In a December 2016 response to HRW, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov did not explicitly deny or admit to Russia’s involvement in the use of cluster munitions in Syria. He attached a position paper that contains a general claim that cluster munitions have been used in accordance with international humanitarian law and not indiscriminately in Syria.[11] Previously, in December 2015, the Russian Defence Ministry stated that “Russian aviation does not use [cluster munitions]” and that “there are no such munitions at the Russian air base in Syria.”[12]

The three-page paper, entitled “Russia’s Position on the Use of Cluster Munitions in Syria,” states that, “no cases of indiscriminate use of air weapons have been registered so far in the course of the counter-terrorist operation in Syria,” and concludes that “given all these elements we consider the question of the involvement of the Russian military personnel in the cases of indiscriminate CMs use in Syria mentioned in your letter totally inappropriate.”[13]

There has been no evidence to indicate that the US or its partners have used cluster munitions in the Operation Inherent Resolve coalition operation against the non-state armed group Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq that began in August 2014.[14] In July 2016, a spokesperson for the US Air Force’s Central Command told The Washington Post that “We have not employed cluster munitions in Operation Inherent Resolve. This includes both U.S. and coalition aircraft.”[15]

Earlier use of cluster munitions

Initial reports of the use of RBK-series air-dropped cluster bombs containing AO-1SCh and PTAB-2.5M bomblets emerged in mid-2012, when the government began its air campaign on rebel-held areas.[16] It has used air-dropped cluster bombs since then, including RBK-500 cluster bombs containing ShOAB-0.5 submunitions and AO-2.5RT and PTAB-2.5KO submunitions.[17] More advanced RBK-500 SPBE bombs containing SPBE sensor fuzed submunitions and a ground-fired 240mm 3-O-8 rocket-assisted mortar projectile have only been used since Russia entered into its joint operation with Syrian government forces at the end of September 2015.[18] In 2012, markings on cluster munitions indicated they were produced in the 1970s and 1980s; while since September 2015, most bear production dates from 1989 into the early 1990s.[19]

Government forces first used ground-launched cluster munitions at the end of 2012, deploying multi-barrel rocket launchers to fire 122mm SAKR cluster munition rockets containing DPICM submunitions.[20] In early 2014, Syrian government forces began to use Smerch 9M55K and Uragan 9M27K-series surface-to-surface rockets containing 9N235 submunitions fitted with self-destruct mechanisms.[21] The first use of cluster munitions by IS was documented in July 2014, when it used an unknown type of rocket-fired cluster munition that dispersed DPICM-like submunition with a distinctive red nylon ribbon called “ZP-39.”[22] Syrian government forces have also used Tochka 9M79-series ballistic missiles.

As the Syria conflict continues to deepen, it is not possible to determine with confidence if armed groups other than IS have used cluster munitions.[23] However, there is evidence that opposition forces have repurposed unexploded submunitions for use in air-delivered and ground-emplaced improvised explosive devices (IEDs). When activated by their victim such devices are considered antipersonnel landmines prohibited by the Mine Ban Treaty.[24]

Responses to the use of cluster munitions

The Syrian military has denied possessing or using cluster munitions, but rarely responds to or comments on new use of cluster munitions.[25] IS has not responded to its reported use of cluster munitions.

The civilian harm caused by the use of cluster munitions in Syria has attracted widespread media coverage, public outcry, and condemnations from more than 140 states.[26] Of these countries, more than 40 have made national statements condemning the use in Syria, including by the foreign ministers of Convention on Cluster Munitions States Parties Austria, Belgium, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the UK.[27] At a 12 April 2017 press briefing in Moscow with the Russian foreign minister, US Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson condemned the Syrian government’s use of “cluster bombs and other types of weapons that are intended to maim and kill in the most horrific ways.”[28]

In September 2016, States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions issued a joint declaration stating that they “condemn any use by any actor” and expressing deep concern at “any and all allegations, reports or documented evidence of the use of cluster munitions, most notably in Syria and Yemen in the past year.”[29]

All of the convention’s presidents have issued statements since 2013 have condemned the use of cluster munitions in Syria, including Germany’s Ambassador Michael Biontino, who is president-designate of the Seventh Meeting of States Parties to be held in Geneva in September 2017.

At the UNGA Third Committee on Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Affairs in November 2016, Slovakia made a statement on behalf of the European Union that strongly condemned the Syrian government for “what may be war crimes,” including the use of cluster munitions.[30] The CMC has condemned the continued use of cluster munitions in Syria, for example, in its statement to the UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2016.[31]

The previous UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki-moon has described “the carnage caused by cluster munitions in Syria” as “a direct violation” of international humanitarian law.[32]

States have adopted five UNGA resolutions since May 2013 condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, including Resolution 71/203 adopted on 19 December 2016 by a vote of 116 states in favor with 16 against and 52 abstentions, which expresses outrage at the continued use of cluster munitions.[33]

Since 2014, states have adopted 10 Human Rights Council resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, including four since June 2016:

Resolution 34/26 adopted on 24 March 2017 by a vote of 27 states in favor and seven opposed, with 13 abstentions, which “condemns the indiscriminate use of weapons against civilian areas, such as…cluster munitions.”[34]

Resolution S-25/1 adopted on 21 October 2016 by a vote of 24 states in favor and seven states opposed, with 16 abstentions, which strongly condemns “the indiscriminate use of weapons, including…cluster bombs.”[35]

Resolution 33/23 adopted on 30 September 2016 by a vote of 26 states in favor and seven states opposed, with 14 abstentions, which “condemns the Syrian authorities’ indiscriminate use of heavy weapons and aerial bombardments, including cluster munitions.”[36]

Resolution 32/25 adopted on 1 July 2016 by a vote of 27 states in favor and six states opposed, with 14 abstentions, which “condemns the Syrian authorities’ use of…cluster munitions.”[37]

The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, which reports to the Human Rights Council, has reported on cluster munition use several times, most recently in March 2017.[38]

[1]Statement of Syria, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 15 September 2011.

[4] Cluster munition rockets manufactured in Egypt have also been used in Syria, while Islamic State (IS) has used cluster munitions rockets of unknown origin containing a DPICM-type submunition called “ZP-39” in Syria.

[5] In 2004, Jane’s Information Group listed Syria as possessing some of the RBK-series air-dropped bombs as well as the KMGU dispensers, indicating that the stocks used after 2012 were not newly-acquired. Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 846.

[6] Since 2012, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has researched and reported cluster munition use in Syria as part of its responsibility as chair of the CMC and ban policy editor for the campaign’s Cluster Munition Monitor reporting initiative. The information contained in this Monitor profile summarizes and updates information published in HRW reports and monitored by HRW, drawing on reporting by local media and activists—including videos—and witness accounts. HRW generally only records cluster munition attacks if the attack and/or remnants were filmed to ensure visual confirmation and for which at least one other source has confirmed the use of cluster munitions. The actual number of attacks is probably much higher, as local activists reported many more incidents of what appear to be cluster munition use.

[7] As of July 2017, the Monitor has yet to see any evidence of cluster munition use in the governorates of Tartus or As-Suwayda.

[8] Previously, there were at least 76 cluster munition attacks by the Russian-Syrian joint operation on opposition-controlled territory between 30 September 2015 and 20 July 2016.

[13] “Russia’s Position on the Use of Cluster Munitions in Syria,” Position Paper annexed to letter to HRW from Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, 9 December 2016. In the cover letter Lavrov states, “I expect our paper to be taken into account during the preparation of future Human Rights Watch reports on the activities of the Russian military personnel in the fight against terrorism in Syria.”

[14] In September 2015, the US Department of Defense listed eight Operation Inherent Resolve coalition members conducting US-led airstrikes in Iraq: Convention on Cluster Munitions non-signatory Jordan and States Parties Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Netherlands, and the UK. It listed nine coalition nations participating in US-led airstrikes in Syria: Convention on Cluster Munitions non-signatories Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and UAE, as well as States Parties Australia, Canada, and France. Department of Defense, “Airstrikes Hit ISIL Terrorists in Syria, Iraq,” 30 September 2015.

[19] Most RBK-500 SPBE cluster bombs were manufactured in 1990 and 1991.

[20] It is not known if the 122mm rockets are SAKR-18 or SAKR-36 variants, which contain 72 and 98 submunitions respectively. The design of the fuze system in this type of submunition makes it very sensitive and submunitions that fail to explode on initial impact are liable to detonate if disturbed. HRW press release, “Syria: Army Using New Type of Cluster Munition,” 14 January 2013.

[21] Armament Research Services, “9M27K Series Cargo Rockets in Syria,” 22 February 2014. HRW attributed responsibility for the use to Syrian government forces, stating, “It is highly unlikely that rebel forces could acquire the eight-wheeled, 43,700 kilogram launch vehicle or operate its sophisticated fire control system without significant training or time to conduct practice drills. There is no video evidence or written claims that any rebel group controls any BM-30 launchers, its similarly sized re-supply vehicle, or any 300mm surface-to-surface rockets like the 9M55K rocket.” HRW press release, “Syria: New Deadly Cluster Munition Attacks,” 19 February 2014.

[25] According to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), “the General Command of the Army and the Armed Forces stressed on [15 October 2012] that the misleading media outlets have recently published untrue news claiming the Syrian Arab Army has been using cluster bombs against terrorists.” According to SANA, “the General [in] Command said the Syrian Army does not possess such bombs.” “Syria denies using cluster bombs,” CNN, 16 October 2012. In March 2013, Syrian diplomatic representatives denied the evidence of Syrian cluster bomb use. Letter from Firas al Rashidi, Charge d’affairs ad interim, Embassy of the Syrian Arab Republic to Japan, to the Japanese Campaign to Ban Landmines, 7 March 2013.

[32]Statement by the UN Secretary General, Convention on Cluster Munitions Fifth Meeting of State Parties, San José, 3 September 2014; and statement by the UN Secretary-General, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Review Conference, Dubrovnik, 7 September 2015.